Guntur: 13th century temple in state of utter neglect

A 13th century temple belonging to Kakatiya period was left in utter neglect at Kollur village of Bellamkonda mandal in Guntur district. It was believed that the famous Kohinoor diamond was mined at this village. The village is now under the submergence area of Pulichintala reservoir.

The Siva temple in this village, which was built during Kakatiya period, was left out of the village. The temple now almost collapsed and it is facing threat of submergence in the back-waters of Pulichintala project.

Though the village has been relocated but no effort was made to relocate and restore the 700-year-old temple which has great historical significance. Locals have named the relocated habitation after the Kohinoor diamond to continue the le-gacy of the historical ba-ckground that their village was possessing.

But the authorities are not bothered to do the same to save the rich history of the land by relocating the Siva temple which stood as testimony of the Kakatiya architecture and the history of medieval Andhra country.

Archaeologist and CEO of Cultural Centre of Vijayawada and Amara-vati Dr E. Sivanagi Reddy, who visited the temple, said that the temple was built of granite sto-ne in Kakatiya style.

He observed that attempts were made to relocate the temple to the newly rehabilitated village and stones were numbered for dismantling. However, it was left uncared for the reasons not known, he said.

The villagers were also confused and said that God only knows whether the temple will be shifted by endowments, archaeology or irrigation departments.